


To Make It Work

by EllanaSan



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Morning After, Morning Cuddles, Post-Lethal White
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 10:30:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20424485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllanaSan/pseuds/EllanaSan
Summary: “Do you regret it?”It’s not the question she’s been anticipating and it’s her turn to suddenly tense. Any residual languor or sleepiness desert her, her heart starts pounding in her chest… The question is like an uppercut straight to the plexus.





	To Make It Work

**Author's Note:**

> I was missing them!

There’s a trickle of sunlight tickling her face and Robin wakes up with a smile, her body deliciously sore. The anxiety that usually stoops on her as soon as she wakes up doesn’t come and she relaxes a little more with a content sigh, her back bumping into the warm body lying behind her.

She doesn’t panic.

A hand fall on her hip, big and slightly hairy and strangely light because he knows better than to startle her when they are in bed and naked.

Not that they have _ever_ been in bed and naked before.

She hopes they will be again though.

When she only burrows back a little, the hand becomes heavier, the touch firmer… A smile stretches her lips and she imagines it sliding down her stomach and lower…

It’s almost odd to have that kind of thoughts. Sex with Matthew stopped being fun long ago. She’s not sure it ever became fun again after… In the sole year of their marriage, sex was perfunctory. A duty. A chore, if she’s honest. She forgot how good it can be. She forgot it doesn’t have to be scary or boring or something to do just to keep up the pretence of a healthy relationship. Sex with Cormoran is definitely none of these things. _Good_ doesn’t cover it. It was a revelation.

The hand doesn’t move though. It remains on her hip, his thumb tracing idle circles on her skin…

His bed is comfortable, far more than the one she has in her little bedroom at her new apartment; so comfortable that she thinks she could easily go back to sleep… Maybe after she brings that hand where she wants it. If she dares. She’s not sure she will dare.

Stubble scratches the back of her shoulder, just as light as his hand was at first. A kiss, she supposes, and she smiles wider.

“Good morning.” she hums.

The fingers clench once on her hip and then relax. His body feels a little tense behind her and she tosses a leg back without thinking, trapping his shortened one between her knees… He tenses even more before finally letting out a long sigh that ruffles her hair. She feels his breath on her nape, rolling down her shoulder…

“Do you regret it?”

It’s not the question she’s been anticipating and it’s her turn to suddenly tense. Any residual languor or sleepiness desert her, her heart starts pounding in her chest… The question is like an uppercut straight to the plexus.

“What?” she croaks, her voice still rough from sleep.

Cormoran’s voice is rough too but it has nothing to do with sleep. If she were to bet, she would say he’s been awake for a while.

Regretting the whole thing, apparently.

“Do you regret it?” he repeats, a little uncertain.

It’s not the kind of question you want to hear the morning after, certainly not first thing, certainly not when they have _finally_… Robin wasn’t planning on this happening, she didn’t set out on seducing him that night in particular, it just sort of… _Happened_. Another case closed, a curry, a lot of laughter, a kiss on the cheek that landed a little too close to her mouth and then… _She’s_ the one who kissed him, _true_, but he kissed back.

He kissed back and trailed his hands up and down her sides and then…

She flushes as she remembers what came after the kissing. There were no questions last night, no room for uncertainty… It all seemed so obvious, so perfect, so…

What does he want her to answer now?

She sits up and snatches the sheet up, securing it around her chest before looking down at him. He’s put his underwear back on at some point, which confirms to her that he’s been awake a while. His face gives nothing away but she sees it in the clenched line of his jaw, in the apprehensive light in his eyes… Cormoran Strike is scared.

Scared that she _does_ regret it or scared that she _doesn’t_? Scared that she _does_ want to pursue this wherever it might take them?

“Do you?” she counters because it’s the basics of interrogating a suspect, deflect their questions back at them.

A flicker of something flashes on his face, annoyance or amusement or something in between. His hand slowly crosses the empty space between them, settles at the small of her back. Tentative.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

A deflection of his own, then.

She studies him for a moment, tries to figure out what’s going on and then tilts her head to the side… “Are you trying to make me leave because you regret this or are you just being stupid thinking I do?”

That earns her a few chuckles and the hand slid toward her hip, his arm sneaking around her to bring her back down against his chest… She doesn’t fight it.

He’s large and hairy and she feels positively tiny in his arms but it’s a good feeling. She would expect his big shape to feel threatening but it feels protective instead. _Safe_.

“It’s not a particularly clever idea.” he points out. 

Because of the job mainly, yes, she already went over that when she realized how attracted to him she is. It will make their job more complicated and it might jeopardize the business if it doesn’t work and they both care too much about the business to risk it lightly. But…

“I want this if you do.” she replies, treading carefully.

His head falls, his face buries in the crook of her neck and she swears he smells her in, his whole body relaxes against hers…

“You know I do.” he whispers. “But I’m getting the good end of the stick here. You’re… _Robin_…”

“Yes, thank you…” She laughs. “I remember my own name.”

“No.” he chuckles. “I mean… I don’t have anything to…”

“Don’t start with that.” she cuts him off. “I don’t need anything. I just want you.”

There’s something in the way he watches her, something that tells her he’s thinking of Charlotte and comparing – whether he’s meaning to or not – and she’s scared of being found lacking because Charlotte… 

“I’m too old, I’m too poor, I’m too under ambitious and you’re worth ten of me.” he states anyway.

She notices he doesn’t bring up the leg but his eyes dart down, betraying the fact the thought is there anyway even if he’s not willing to voice it.

“What you are is good, brave, clever and enough of a gambler to take a chance on a random temp.” she retorts without missing a beat.

“No gamble there.” he denies, brushing her long hair away from her face. His fingers remain tangled in the loose strands and she likes that. “That’s how you see me, then? Not the worst description people have made of me.”

And given his notoriety, there must have been a lot.

“You’re also stubborn, not serious enough about your health and overprotective.” she informs him, placing her palm flat on his chest, over his heart. There are scars here and there. She will learn the shape and the taste of them later, she vows.

“I’m just the right amount of protective.” he grumbles. “You’re the reckless one.”

“See?” she teases, leaning in for a kiss. “Stubborn.”

He kisses her back and the ball of dread in her stomach starts to melt. The kisses are slow and soft until they grow a little heated, his hands start roaming in more intimate places… There’s an unvoiced question in his touch she’s only too happy to answer…

“We can do this… “ she whispers in his ear when he rolls on top of her. “And if it doesn’t work… We’re adults. It doesn’t have to mean we won’t be able to keep working together.”

He snorts a little dubiously at that but kisses her on the nose and then kisses her full on the mouth and then she forgets she even said anything until he’s talking again. “Let’s make it work, Robin.”

There’s something tenderly hopeful in his gaze and she smiles.

Then she closes her eyes and lets him make love to her.

_Yes_, she thinks_, yes, let's make this work. _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little piece! Let me know your thoughts please!


End file.
